RENO, Nev. -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a woman in Nevada. According to online court records, a defamation lawsuit was filed in Washoe County on Friday. Andrea McNulty is listed as the plaintiff.

Details of the suit were not available late Monday night. Roethlisberger was one of nine defendants listed in the online court docket report.

"This weekend Andrea McNulty served Ben Roethlisberger with a civil complaint accusing him of sexually assaulting her in July 2008. Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone, especially Andrea McNulty. The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct. If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated," Cornwell said.

A phone message and e-mail from the AP to Cornwell were not immediately returned.

Attorney Calvin R. Dunlap, of Reno, filed the suit, according to court documents. A telephone message left for him was not immediately returned.

In the suit, the woman accuses Roethlisberger of raping her last summer in his penthouse room at a casino in Lake Tahoe during a celebrity golf tournament. Roethlisberger's lawyer adamantly denied the allegations Tuesday.

The claim seeks at least $390,000 in damages from the quarterback, who has won two Super Bowls and is one of biggest names in sports. The lawsuit also alleges hotel officials for Harrah's Lake Tahoe went to great lengths to cover up the incident.

Teresa Duffy, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office in Douglas County, which includes part of Lake Tahoe, said no complaints were filed about such an incident either with sheriff's deputies or the district attorney's office.

The woman's lawsuit says she didn't file a criminal complaint because she feared she would be fired and expected Harrah's would side with Roethlisberger. The woman said she had been promoted from VIP shift manager and was working as an executive casino host when Roethlisberger struck up a friendly conversation at her desk during the golf tournament.

The next day, July 11, 2008, she said he telephoned her to tell her his television sound system wasn't working and asked her to look at it. She said she was unable to find a technician so she decided to handle it herself because she had been told how important it was to please celebrities.

In Roethlisberger's room, she said, she determined the TV was functioning properly but as she turned to leave but the 6-foot-5, 240-pound quarterback stood in front of the day and blocked her, the suit claims. The lawsuit said he then grabbed her and started to kiss her. It said she was "shocked and stunned that this previously friendly man, that appeared to be a gentleman in her previous contacts with him was suddenly preventing her from leaving, was assaulting her and battering her."

She said she feared that because he was a football player he could or would physically harm her if she tried to fight him off but that she objected and protested several times. "But instead of stopping, Roethlisberger began fondling plaintiff through her dress and between her legs," the suit said. He then "held her against her will and physically moved plaintiff and pushed her onto his bed" here he raped her, the suit says. <

The lawsuit says the woman required hospitalization for treatment for depression after the alleged attack. The woman's lawyer, Calvin R. Dunlap, of Reno, declined to answer questions about the lack of a criminal complaint and why the civil action was brought a year after the incident allegedly took place.

"Neither I nor our client will be making any comment," Dunlap said in an e-mail to AP. "We believe the matter should be resolved in court rather than in the media."

The lawsuit also names eight Harrah's employees as defendants and alleges the cover-up involved the chief of security at Harrah's Lake Tahoe and was carried out with the knowledge of John Koster, president of Harrah's northern Nevada operations.

Steelers spokesman Dave Lockett said Tuesday the team is aware of the lawsuit, and "we are gathering information."

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